In which I fight against the bureaucracy and win, one day too late to whine about.

1. My advisor told me I could register for Summer Term on Wednesday, March 22nd - because with the credits I will have at the end of this semester, I will be fully a Sophomore. Unfortunately, the On-line Registration program doesn't count the credits I will have, only those I do have and so it told me that I couldn't register until 9:00 this morning with the rest of the Freshman.

2. At 9:01, I log in to register and it says I can't because there is a hold on my account. I click on the link to find out WTF the hold-up is and it says I'm not up-to-date on my immunizations. WHAT?!?! I got two gonzo shots in January! I handed in the paperwork! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT???

3. So I call and just get an answering machine. I leave a message and decide to be proactive so...

4. I call the doctor's office and ask them to fax over a copy of what I got done in January. It is now 9:10 in the morning. They are very pleasant and act as though they will do it right away. I drop Muffin Man off at PNP and I go to my first class (starts at 10:30) and after class at 11:45 I go to the University Immunization office where I am informed that they have not received a fax from my doctor's office. The Immunization office says that the doctor must not have filled out the sheet properly since they are missing a current MMR.

5. I call the doctor's office. Am on hold for 4 minutes. They say they will get to it as soon as they can. I reiterate that I cannot register until they send the fax.

6. I go to my Women and Work class where I discover that in all the aggravation this morning, I have forgotten my assignment. It is on my desk at home. I will have to e-mail it.

7. I have lunch and return to the Immunization office at 2:00. Still no fax. I call the doctor's office again and get attitude from the receptionist. I tell her I'll wait on hold until she faxes it. She does so.

8. My records do not show an MMR given in January. What? But I got everything I needed to be up-to-date!

9. I ask the nice nurse at the Immunization office if I can get an MMR there. "Only Mondays and Wednesdays" she says. She gives me the number for the Public Health office.

10. I call. They don't do immunizations on Thursdays but I could go in tomorrow.

11. I call my doctor's office. They can't do immunizations today because they are short staffed. One of the doctors is on vacation.

12. I take another look at the immunization form. The field for MMR is blank. BUT...the fields for Measles only, Mumps only, and Rubella only are filled in. Don't they count?

13. I bring the form over to the nice nurse and ask her. "Yes" she says. "They count. But they have to have been given after your first birthday."

14. I look. The form says, "Measles: 2/10/70, 4/17/77; Mumps: 3/19/70; Rubella: (some date or other in '72)" and it specifies that they have to be after the 1st birthday AND after 1967. Well, I had my last shots of all of these after my first birthday! I'm golden! I bring it back to the nice nurse. "No." she says sadly. "You had to have gotten ALL of your shots after your first birthday. Any shot you received before then doesn't count."

"And there isn't any way you can give me an MMR shot today so that I can register?"

Long pause. She reaches behind the counter and gets some forms.

"Fill these out. The shot costs $45.00."




So, I am now sporting a bandaid and am registered for Summer: 1st half: Intro to Creative Writing and General Linguistics, 2nd half: Micro-economics and Social Psychology.